Proven Formulas

Reel Faith

December 2008

December 21, 2008

You had such great plans. You had it all worked out. Each detail. Each step. You knew where you were going and you were almost there. And then, something unexpected happens—something you didn’t anticipate, something you couldn’t foresee. All your plans take a major left turn and you find yourself seemingly heading straight into a dead-end.

There’s no time to wait. You’re going to crash into a wall. You’re convinced that your life is going to fall apart unless you run in the opposite direction out of harm’s way. The fear of the unknown convinces you to act now. There’s no time to wait.

Joseph, the young man betrothed to Mary, the would-be adopted father of her child, can relate. He never speaks a word in the entirety of the Gospel story but one can guess what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling. Where did it all go wrong? How did it come to this? His life and reputation are about to be ruined by the actions of the young maid to whom he bound himself in the covenant of marriage. Shame, dishonor and ridicule are about to come upon him.

Mary is obviously pregnant. The child she is carrying is obviously not his. To marry her would be to admit that he played a part or at the very least affirmed her adultery, her breaking of the Law of Moses. To divorce Mary is to sentence the girl that he loves, the person he has committed his life to, to alienation, to disgrace and ultimately, death. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Joseph looks to exit the scene quietly, to run away and not look back.

But then an angel comes to Joseph in a dream. God’s message is simple and direct: don’t be afraid, wait and believe. Don’t be afraid that you don’t understand what God is up to. Wait to see how God is fulfilling what he promised a long time ago. Believe that what seems like a dead end in your life is really God’s new beginning. In other words, God says, “Trust me.”

With Christmas less than a week away, is your life on or off schedule? Are you struggling to understand God’s will and purpose in the circumstances of your life? Are you being tempted to cut your losses and run even as God is calling you to stand fast and trust in what you cannot see?

The season of Advent dares us to wait and to believe with Joseph. In the time we are given let us face our fears and confront the perceived dead ends in our lives. Together may we find that Joseph’s dream of God’s promise is our dream too. Together may we learn as Joseph did that in Jesus Christ, the dream becomes a reality.

December 14, 2008

Have you ever heard or read a story so many times that you think you know everything about it? You can recite it from memory. You can picture all of the details in your mind’s eye. The continuing appeal of the story is found in the nostalgia of remembering it, of replaying the events in your mind. As a means of revealing something new or teaching you something, the power of the narrative is long gone and the story becomes simply an event.

For many of us, part of the difficulty of waiting for Christmas to come is that we are too familiar with the story of Advent. “We know how it all ends,” we think, “so why the delay? Let’s get on with it!” But maybe part of the reason we have to wait is so that we might hear the story afresh.

After all, the basic contours of the story are so ingrained in our consciousness through various carols, cards and decorations that it is all too easy to skim over the details. Even those who don’t believe this Jesus stuff actually happened know the facts of the Christmas story. It’s a rare Scrooge indeed whose heart isn’t moved by the sentiment of the Christmas message—of Emmanuel, of God with us.

But does the story of Advent and Christmas have any relevance to our lives today?

Is there more to the story than we realized or remember?

Has the event of Christmas eclipsed the story of Advent as we prepare to celebrate?

When Mary received the announcement of God’s favor and presence, she pondered the meaning of such news. As God’s story of salvation and redemption continued to unfold in the midst of the story of her own life, through the pregnancy and birth of a son, she continued to reflect on the significance of it all. For Mary, time was a grace that enabled her to ponder the message proclaimed through God’s story. It was in the waiting that Mary found the space to reflect upon what such news meant for her life, the life of her son and the world at large.

As we draw closer to Christmas, may we wait and ponder with Mary. Let us hear afresh her story as we draw closer to Christmas. Together may we discover that there is more to her than just the reverent figure aglow in blue and white that adorns our manger scene. Together may we find that we have more in common with Mary than we dared realize, that her story is our story too.

December 04, 2008

Advent means “arrival” or “coming,”--Christ coming into the world, coming into our lives. Advent then is a season of waiting - waiting for the coming of our Lord, waiting for the arrival of God’s promise to be Emmanuel, to be God with us.

Like it or not, most of us spend a lot of time waiting. We wait for a parking space. We wait in lines at stores. We wait for someone to return our call. We wait for friends and family to notice a change in our lives.

Sometimes waiting is all we can do, and our hearts become heavy from all the waiting. We wait for answers to our deepest questions; we wait for God to do something about a concern that we have.

And yet, waiting is an essential part of faith. In the Gospel of Luke we read that Zechariah and Elizabeth were engaged in a particular kind of waiting. They had been waiting for the blessing of being able to conceive a child together. They were still waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promise to change the world.

What are you waiting for? What are you anticipating? What are you hoping for?These questions come to us most poignantly during the season of Advent.

Sometimes we can be waiting so long or waiting with such intensity that we actually fail to see the arrival of what we have been waiting for. Our preoccupations, our fears and our perspective of life can often lead to our words eclipsing the very revelation of God’s Word. So it was for Zechariah. In response, God thrust Zechariah into a prolonged period of silence—an act of judgment to be sure but also a gift of grace.

As we continue to share the journey of Advent, may we enter into the waiting and the silence of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Together with them we will wait and see the Word of God come to fulfillment at the proper time.

Let us be alert to the coming of Christ long ago, here and now and one final time when this world as we know it, comes to an end. May we find hope in our waiting and wisdom in the silence. May we live in anticipation for the light that is about to break forth!